Desensitization Week

I have >some time off from work this week, so I decided to spend some time helping the dogs feel better about some things that bother them.

Puddin gets upset when the neighbors close their trashcan lid. The video below shows me pairing tasty treats with the sound of the lid closing. In classical conditioning, the stimulus (trashcan lid) should come before the reward (meat). And we should not “flood” (forcing a scared dog to endure something scary). We start easy and only increase intensity when we see a positive Conditioned Emotional Response.